Monthly Archives: June 2012

Serious affiliates will probably find it’s worth their time to do their own linking and save the 25%, but for beginning bloggers and for sites with a lot of user-generated content, VigLink or Skimlinks are perfect ways to monetize any outgoing links. Also it is best for people who want more of a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution, so they can focus on their writing or other aspects of their business. Plus, because they do such a large volume of business, VigLink and Skimlinks often can negotiate a higher overall commission rate with the advertisers. That means that even after their 25% cut, you may still be better off than you would be “on your own.”

The best part about either of these programs is that they are free to join, easy to set-up, and whatever you earn is 100% incremental revenue. And if you already have some affiliate links on your site, neither VigLink nor Skimlinks will overwrite those!

They give %10 of publishers commission rate from VigLink share for one year. Equals: %7.5 of total.

SkimLink will give %10 of SkimLinks commission for text referrals. And will give %12 of SkimLinks commission for banner/badge links. For one year.Equals:%2.5 of total (for text link)%3.0 of total (for badge/banner)

Tax

Compatible with U.S. system only. But you have problems if you are non-US publisher. U.S. Laws wanted to have %30 income tax from alien foreigners!Also needed to fill complicated ambiguous forms and apply for ITIN (tax id number) if you want to keep everything legal.Also, you might need to pay your income tax at your country. Double kill!

For U.K. Citizens they collect VAT.For other countries. You can pay your income tax to your country by your country laws…

Supports filtering by domain and merchants.API allows you to get subid’s and extra details of commission data!

Statistics Range

Weekly and monthly ranges available only. Daily statistics not available.

Allow custom statistics ranges.

Statistics Export

CSV export for a week only.

XML,CSV,PDF export for custom ranges.

Skimlinks – Automatically turning links into affiliate links

Skimlinks is a company in the UK that, once you sign up for their program and add their code to your website, will turn any link into an affiliate link. That means, if a blogger features a product from Banana Republic, and links to the product page, when a reader clicks that link, Skimlinks automatically turns it into an affiliate link and the blogger earns a commission if the reader buys anything. If Skimlinks has a merchant in their network, then the blogger can earn commissions for that merchant.

I started using Skimlinks on the Alterations Needed Forum, because I wanted to find a way for the Forum to pay for all the money I had to spend to create and put it up. Putting up Shopsense links on the forum didn’t seem right, so I had to look for another way for the Forum to make money. What I found was Skimlinks. If a forum member shares a link to a product they love, and a reader clicks that link and buys something, the Forum earns a commission. Perfect! The forum members help the Forum earn money just by sharing the items they buy and love, and other forum members using their suggestions to make a purchase.

Pros – It’s easy! There are no special links to use, and the blogger is able to get access to hard to get affiliate programs that maybe she/he could not join on their own.

Cons – Skimlinks takes a commission, from the blogger’s commission, so the blogger earns less than they would if they joined the affiliate program for a merchant directly. Not all the affiliate programs a blogger might want to use are available.

My biggest gripe is the payout system. Skimlinks waits to pay your balance until you reach $50 in cleared payments. It can take 60-90 days for a commission to clear, so I often go months without a payment.

My experience – I like Skimlinks a lot. It gives the Forum an opportunity to bring in a little income, which helps pay for the cost of running it. I also started using it on Alterations Needed, for items I don’t have a Shopsense link for. It generates a little bit of income, but not too much. I really wished it had Banana Republic and Ann Taylor/LOFT as part of it’s program, so when a representative from a similar company called Viglink emailed me, I was excited.

Viglink – like Skimlinks, except worse

Viglink is a similar company to Skimlinks, and when I got contacted by a representative about them, I was excited to hear they had Banana Republic and Ann Taylor/LOFT as part of their affiliate program! Perfect! I write so much about those two companies, that having the affiliate programs for them was a must! I quickly switched to Viglink on both Alterations Needed and the AN Forum and hoped for the best.

Pros – Quicker and more informative reporting than Skimlinks. Responsive customer service (I had a problem getting it to work on the Forum and they quickly helped me out). Ann Taylor, LOFT and Banana Republic were part of their affiliate network…yay!

Cons – They tricked me! When I signed into Viglink, it showed me all the great merchants that would pay commissions for my sites, and I got really excited to see what it would do. Three months later….hardly anything at all happened. I didn’t understand. All these new merchants were available for me, but I wasn’t making any money. What was happening?

My experience – A Skimlinks representative contacted me, asking what they could do to get me to come back. I told them the only reason I switched was for Ann Taylor, LOFT and Banana Republic affiliate programs. Skiminks looked at my site and told me Viglink wasn’t even affiliating those links!

I did some searching through their hard-to-navigate help forum, and finally found the answer. The website shows you all the great merchants Viglink has in their network, but doesn’t necessarily add you to their programs. Almost half the merchants I thought I was affiliated with, I wasn’t. What a dirty trick!

After speaking with a Viglink representative, I learned the individual merchants decide whether or not to let a website be an affiliate. After a website sends good traffic to that merchant, they should be added as an affiliate. The fact that Viglink did not clearly show which merchants had not added me to their affiliate programs, and did not activate my websites after three months, even though I was sending a good amount of traffic, really turned me off the company.

Because Viglink does not clearly state which merchants a website is being affiliated with or not, I felt duped, and quickly switched back to Skimlinks.

Advice for bloggers – If you use Viglink, check your Viglink dashboard. Any merchants with a gray dash (-) under the “actions” column is not being affiliated on your site. To be activated for the merchant, you might need to complain to a Viglink representative. I really don’t like how Viglink does not clearly disclose this information from the beginning.

Other Aggregated Comments

I run a handful of forums and tested both services on various combinations of them. My findings were that, for my niche at least, viglink performed significantly better in terms or pure revenue, almost twice as much. The CTRs were about the same, but viglink paid quite a bit more.

Now I noticed that skimlink was apparently missing a VERY important affiliate in my niche that was a high earner and told my account rep. She informed me that they have an “opt in” policy and she would make sure I was added to their list, but had I not been comparing services, I would have never known this and never known to ask to be opted in to such an important partner! Who knows what other affiliates also have “opt in if requested” rules that I haven’t accidentally stumbled upon.

Even after I made that request, Viglink out-performed skimlinks by maybe 30-35%. I have since converted 6 or my 7 sites to viglink. I still keep one on Skimlinks because I don’t want to give up on them completely or sever my account with them.

I will say this – IMO, skimlinks dashboard feels more fleshed out and does a much better job of showing me what’s going on, and they do have skimwords (in-text ads) as an added benefit, if you want to turn those on. However, I’m on record has having said I can’t stand in-text ads as a user and refuse to submit my members to such outrageous abuse. For ease of use, I suppose it’s an added benefit to consider, though I can’t imagine they perform as well as Vibrant Media or other full fledged in-text ad companies.

Skimlinks

Pros: It’s easy! There are no special links to use, and the blogger is able to get access to hard to get affiliate programs that maybe she/he could not join on their own.

Cons: Skimlinks takes a commission, from the blogger’s commission, so the blogger earns less than they would if they joined the affiliate program for a merchant directly. Not all the affiliate programs a blogger might want to use are available.

My biggest gripe is the payout system. Skimlinks waits to pay your balance until you reach $50 in cleared payments. It can take 60-90 days for a commission to clear, so I often go months without a payment.

Viglink

Pros: Quicker and more informative reporting than Skimlinks. Responsive customer service (I had a problem getting it to work on the Forum and they quickly helped me out). Ann Taylor, LOFT and Banana Republic were part of their affiliate network…yay!

Cons: They tricked me! When I signed into Viglink, it showed me all the great merchants that would pay commissions for my sites, and I got really excited to see what it would do. Three months later….hardly anything at all happened. I didn’t understand. All these new merchants were available for me, but I wasn’t making any money. What was happening?

Blogger’s Experience

A Skimlinks representative contacted me, asking what they could do to get me to come back. I told them the only reason I switched was for Ann Taylor, LOFT and Banana Republic affiliate programs. Skiminks looked at my site and told me Viglink wasn’t even affiliating those links!

I did some searching through their hard-to-navigate help forum, and finally found the answer. The website shows you all the great merchants Viglink has in their network, but doesn’t necessarily add you to their programs. Almost half the merchants I thought I was affiliated with, I wasn’t. What a dirty trick!

After speaking with a Viglink representative, I learned the individual merchants decide whether or not to let a website be an affiliate. After a website sends good traffic to that merchant, they should be added as an affiliate. The fact that Viglink did not clearly show which merchants had not added me to their affiliate programs, and did not activate my websites after three months, even though I was sending a good amount of traffic, really turned me off the company.

Because Viglink does not clearly state which merchants a website is being affiliated with or not, I felt duped, and quickly switched back to Skimlinks.

If you use Viglink, check your Viglink dashboard. Any merchants with a gray dash (-) under the “actions” column is not being affiliated on your site. To be activated for the merchant, you might need to complain to a Viglink representative. I really don’t like how Viglink does not clearly disclose this information from the beginning.

VigLink differs from SkimLinks in our focus on understanding and optimizing existing behaviors vs enabling new ones. For example, VigLink places unique emphasis on analytics. We can tell you which specific products your customers are buying when they leave your site, as well as which links and pages are generating most of your revenue on a per-click basis. These feeds are designed to be machine-ingestible and inform existing SEM and related efforts.

In contrast, “SkimKit” – a search-engine for writers looking for well-monetizing things to write about – is an effort we are unlikely to duplicate.

VigLink is an engineering focused organization and aspires to do a small number of things very well and getting the small details right. For example, VigLink uniquely minimizes the use of redirects which pose reliability and user-experience concerns.

SkimLinks is backed by the British Government and other prominent European investors. VigLink is backed by Google Ventures and First Round Capital as well as angel investors like Reid Hoffman, Deep Nishar and the Partovi Brothers.

I disagree that artificial shark’s fin can ever replace the real stuff.

Honestly, and in fairness to shark’s fin soup lovers, environmentalists should take the trouble to understand why diners are drawn to the dish.

I love it because the taste can be described only as heavenly – a gift from the gods.

Artificial shark’s fin made out of gelatin has not been able to replace the genuine stuff despite years of efforts.

Added to that is the cultural link: Shark’s fin has been on the Chinese menu since the Ming Dynasty more than half a millennium ago.

The exponential surge of the world’s population has put a strain on ocean resources. It is natural that shark populations have shrunk due to loss of their feeding habitats.

Large-scale fisheries have also depleted global fish stocks, and made sharks an unfortunate by-product of its exploitation, by killing them in the search for other fish like the blue-fin tuna.

So let us be clear about who is to blame for the significant depletion of the world’s shark populations. It certainly isn’t shark’s fin soup lovers like me.

Paul Chan

=

And some epic comments…

Please try eating it by itself without boiling it in any broth, then say again if the taste is a gift from the gods? And which god is it that allows innocent creatures to be slaughtered for the sake of “show thy wealth”… yes, it’s NOT the taste that creates the demand for fins…. it’s the need for some to show that they can afford it. If it’s the taste, just have a bowl of the broth, the fins are as tasteless as your fingernails.
Does it hurt you to stop eating it? Cos another whole innocent living creature will have to die, just to make u another bowl. We are wiping out entire species to tantalize our tastebuds with tasteless & nutritionless cartilage?!?!
I’d seriously consider the intention of this god of yours.

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You sure luv that bowl of heavenly shark’s fin soup, don’t you ? A grand feast will be incomplete without such a grandiose dish, would it ? And no Thomas Menkhoff from the other ‘side’ is going to shake you off your Ming dynasty based tradition to believe that ‘environmentalist’ hype, could he ? You’re right, that’s half a millennium tonnes of ‘heavenly shark’s fin soup’ eaten, isn’t it ? Don’ tell me, you’re probably more ‘blue’ than those Ming porcelains, eh ?

Keep your ears and eyes firmly shut. Don’t let them play with your mind, sir. Enjoy your bowl of ‘heaven sent shark’s fin soup’, concentrate on every spoonful of this delicacy, as them fins slide down your throat and titillate your taste buds, bringing such addictive pleasure to generations before you. Do that sir, and do it quietly.

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Humans kill for food, fashion, sport, etc because we CAN – including cannibalism in tribal societies before laws intervened – un-needing of additional reasons/justification.

Isn’t it ironic that the slightest cruelty to species designated as pets merits legal punishment – while daily slaughter of ‘meat’ animals go unpunished when it is even more cruel?Ideally – possibly in the next century – cell-multiplied meat production would obviate slaughter. Then only would I eat meat – too late for me – with relish and a clear conscience.”Humane slaughter” is an oxymoron in some sense – designed to assuage the conscience of some meat eaters, right? Like painless execution via drugs in some nations and states of the US.

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No one should impose his belief on others, no matter which group he belongs to.

If you like to eat shark’s fins, eat lor. But do not criticise those who believe they should save the shark.

If you find it cruel, then don’t eat lor. Don’t preach your belief & make it sound so cruel.

Since we have 2 different groups, the shark will reproduce just enough for consumption.